
ORATION, 



By J. A. VANDEN HEUVEL, Esa. 





Qass 'E P , ^JL 

Book ,0v3-i- 



1 



AN 



ORATION, 



DELIVERED AT 



OGDENSBURGH, NEW-YORK, 



FOURTH OF JULY 1837, 



CELEBRATION OF THE FIFTY-FIRST ANNIVERSARY 



Mmtvitan KuTrejjentrcnce* 



By J. a, VANDEN HEUVEL, Esa. 



PUBLISHED BY THE COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS. 




OGDENSBURGH, PRINJTED : 
NEW-YORK RE-PRINTED BY J. SEYMOUR, JOHN-STREET. 

1827. 



ORATION. 



FELLOW-CITIZENS : 

It has been the custom of all nations to celebrate the periodical 
return of the happy epochs of their history, with demonstrations of 
joy and triumph. The spirit of patriotism is refreshed when the 
inhabitants of a common country, leaving their homes and occupa- 
tions, and laying aside all causes of difference, all distinctions of sect 
or party, unite in recalling together the moments of their country's 
glory. With similar feelings we hail the return of this proud day ; 
a day which raised this country from a state of colonial subjection 
and oppression, to the rank of an independent state, destined to hold 
an important station among the powers of the earth ; and with hearts 
warmed with patriotic ardour, and minds deeply impressed with 
the greatness of the occasion, we meet as members of one family, 
to congratulate each other on this auspicious event, to look back 
on the circumstances attending it, and to consecrate anew in our 
hearts those principles of civil liberty to which it owed its birth. 

The actors in this eventful drama have left this mortal scene: 
another generation has succeeded ; but their actions, and the mo- 
tives and principles of their condnct, are engraven by the pen of his- 
tory, on monuments more durable than brass or marble. Impartial 
posterity will not hesitate to do ample justice to the uprightness of 
their cause, to the purity of their intentions, to assert with them, 
that it was an urgent necessity that constrained them to separate 
from the parent state ; that a long train of abuses and usurpations, 
pursuing invariably the same object, evincing a design to reduce 
them under an absolute despotism : it was their right, as it was their 
duty, to throw ofl'such government, and to provide new guards for 
their future safety. 

Let me, my friends and fellow-citizens, awaken in your minds the 
recollection of a {"ew facts in the history of your country, to illus- 
trate this remark. 

Three hundred years since, tiiis extensive western continent, 
now covered with populous states, advancing with rapid march to 



a comparison with the ancient world, in all the comforts and en- 
joyments with which art and science crown the exertions ofmanf, 
was first disclosed to the astonished eyes of the rest of the globe.' 
The excitement which this event gave to the mind of man, was felt 
in every direction on the continent of Europe. To its inhabitants, 
cramped within a small part of the habitable earth, oppressed 
by the domination of ancient systems, which held in subjection the 
intellect of a great part of society, the opening of a new world pre- 
sented a boundless theatre for the efforts of ambition and enterprise, 
with objects of pursuit suitable to the desires of all. 

The influence of this great event materially contributed to the 
revival of letters in Europe, which was succeeded by a general 
advancement in the arts and sciences, and a developement of the 
great principles of civil Hberty, which the ponderous appendages of 
the feudal system, and the darkness of superstition had hid from the 
view. The eflfect of the great struggle which ensued between the 
rights of man and ancient abuses, was no where more visible than 
in the land of your ancestors. A fermentation commenced there, 
which for more than half a century, set at war the people and the 
throne. The civil and religious rights of mankind were maintained 
■with inflexible ardonr ; and authority, unwilling to slacken its reins, 
a convulsion followed which brought a mon<.rch to the block.' 
It was at an early period of these civil troubles, that a number of 
families in England, sorely oppressed by the denial of those religious 
privileges which they valued dearer than life, and desirous to with- 
draw from that scene of contention, which the tyranny set over 
them was gradually covering with darker and darker shades, retired 
to Holland ; a country at that time the foremost in the defence of 
the Protestant liberties of Europe, and the asylum of the oppressed 
of all nations, there to remain while the storm of persecution 
lasted. Several years they resided in that country ; but despair- 
ing at length of any change at home favourable to religious tole- 
ration, they came to the solemn resolution to cross the wide ocean 
to the newly discovered world, to establish there, in the depths of 
its forests, a foundation for their civil and religious Hberties, far 
beyond any human control. They accordingly returned to Eno-. 
land to prepare for the enterprise ; and having fitted out a vessel, 
embarked from Plymouth on the 6th September, 1G20. Such an 
undertaking to those who resolved on it, must have been of the most 
appalling nature. The improvements in the science of navigation 



and ship building, render a voyage across the ocean now of sliglii 
moment ; but vessels at that period were greatly inferior in comfort 
and speed to those of the present day. The ocean was then but 
rarely crossed ; by none but the boldest and most resolute ; men, 
who, with souls cased in adamant, launched forth upon it, to en- 
gage in scenes of distant enterprise in other portions of the new 
world. Valiant soldiers and hardy seamen alone were seen upon 
its broad waters. Commerce had not then begun to send forth 
even the man of ordinary business, the merchant to traverse it. But 
who composed the little band of pilgrims, who for the protection of 
their rights and liberties ventured on the perilous voyage ? Not 
alone men in the prime of life, with constitutions hardened to 
fatigue, and minds enured to struggle with difficulty, but mothers 
and their children, clinging to their husbands and fathers, com- 
posed two-thirds of the whole company, which amounted to 101 
souls. They left the comforts of a world grown old in civilization 
and improvement ; they bid farewell to their native land, now glanc- 
ing upon them to revive in their memory the fond recollection of 
the scenes of their childhood and riper age, gloomy as they had 
been rendered by the oppressions from which they fled, still delight- 
ful to dwell upon ; not as on their former departure for a short and 
temporary period, but to build themselves up a country in a distant 
hemisphere, which was to be their home and habitation for ever. 

The voyage of these pilgrims, says the historian, was a boisteT- 
ous passage of more than two months. Twice they returned, froia 
the leakiness of the small ship in which they embarked, which they 
were obliged finally to abandon. Their fears and anxieties during 
the various perils of the voyage, the sickness with which many of 
them must have been oppressed, unaccustomed to the sea, and of 
the most delicate sex and feeble infancy, may be partially conceived; 
but it is scarcely possible for us duly to measure the gloom of their 
sensations, at contemplating under these circumstances the pros- 
pect before them. When from the deck of their little vessel, they 
looked forward to behold the place of their last refuge and asylum 
looming above the horizon, it was not to them a promised land flow- 
ing with milk and honey, but a land of thorns and briars. The whole 
continent of America, except the small settlement in Virginia, made 
a i'ew years previously by Capt. Smith, near 1000 miles distant, was 
still an entire wilderness, overgrown with forests vegetating in rank 
luxuriance, and inhabited only by wild animals or barbarous tribes 
of men, who, from the frightful narratives constantly brought home 



6 

by voyagers to the new world of the cruelty of its inhabitants, must 
have been viewed with intense dread and alarm. The settlement 
in Virginia, from the many abortive attempts made to effect it, the 
entire destruction of one colony by famine and the inroads of tlie 
savages, and the severe distresses those which succeeded it en- 
dured, so far from being a subject of encouragement, could only 
have tended more fully to damp their spirits. 

They arrived on the bleak and barren coast of this inhospitable 
wilderness, in the most inclement season of the year, on the 25th 
December, in a district which now forms part of the state of Mas- 
sachusetts. Yet, under these most cheerless circumstances, they a 
■few weeks after, in a country covered with snow and ice, com- 
menced the laying out of a town and the erection of houses, and 
formed their able-bodied men into a military company to defend 
themselves against the savages. They agreed upon a number of 
laws for their civil and military government, and named the place 
of their settlement " Plymouth," in honour of the port from which 
they had sailed. 

Such was the first colony formed in New England. These were 
the earliest struggles of your ancestors, to establish in the new 
world, a foundation for their civil and religious liberties. 

The heroic fortitude, undaunted resolution, and persevering ener- 
gy v/hich distinguished their conduct, are unparalleled in the history 
of the world. The thirst of power, the love of money, or the ardour 
of curiosity, have led men to endure every form of danger and dis- 
tress ; to traverse land and water on distant enterprises, to dive into 
the depths of mines, to scale lofty mountains, to scorch under the 
line, or winter amid polar ice ; but history does not present an in- 
stance of such self-devotion for principle alone, as was exemplified 
in the conduct of the first settlers of New England. That spirit of 
ardent piety, of reliance on the protection of that Providence, for 
the Avorship of whom they had encountered the perils they endured, 
could alone have supported them throughout. To the surprise of 
these colonists, the news carried back to England of their settle- 
ment soon spread about, and its successful progress led others to 
join them, equally anxious to escape from civil and religious op- 
pression. The continued troubles in that country accelerated emi- 
gration. Three other colonics were soon formed around them ; 
Massachusetts Bay, Hartford, and New Haven. Other parts of the 
United States were settled on the same principles of civil and reli- 
gious liberty. I have spoken particularly of the first settlement of 



New England, because that part of the early history of the Ameri- 
can colonies, is necessarily of more interest to you. In course of 
time, these various settlements grew up into large and flourishing 
colonies, containing after the lapse of a century and a half, three 
millions of inhabitants. 

And now, fellow-citizens, in regard to the rights and wrongs of 
these colonies, in the struggle which in future times was to separate 
them from the land from which they sprung, we are presented on 
the pages of history with this remarkable fact ; that from the first 
location made by any of the subjects of Great Britain on the conti- 
nent throughout the successive stages of colonization, all their set- 
tlements, with a single exception, were effected solely by individual 
enterprise. Except in the state of Georgia, whose settlement was 
of very modern date, the crown of England granted in no case a 
single shilling to fit out an enterprise, to build ships, or provide re- 
sources for it. And not only were the first settlements made with- 
out her aid, but in the subsequent growth of these colonies, through- 
out all their dangers and difficulties, it was in no solitary instance 
extended to them. After clearing the wilderness, and planting 
towns and villages, which might have promised the colonists some 
hope of comfort, their quiet was constantly molested, their lives and 
property endangered by the native savages, who hung upon their 
settlements with the burning brand in one hand, and the tomahawk 
in the other. The Indian wars into which they were led, were of 
frequent occurrence, and attended with heavy expenses, which these 
exiles from their native land, founders amidst accumulated hard- 
ships of a new state, were obliged to endure without the slighest 
assistance from the mother country. And yet, in all the wars of 
Great Britain, though arising from causes in which they had no 
concern, they were incessantly involved, and were forced to wage 
them at their own expense. In some of these wars, the colonies were 
made the theatre of contention, from the mutual desire of the 
European powers to seize each other's possessions in America, in 
which they suffered more than any other part of the British domin- 
ions ; yet in the arrangements for the peace which followed, they 
were not in the slightest manner suffered to have a voice. 

The utter indifference which the colonists experienced from 
Great Britain, was exchanged in half a century for a manifestation 
of feelings towards them more flattering to their pride, but not 
more liberal or kind. Their increasing growth and flourishing con- 
dition, and more than all, the commercial spirit which began to 
arise among them, attracted the notice solely, because it alarmed 



8 

the mercantile jealousy of the mother country. "The fisheries, 
shipping, and foreign West India trade of the colonies had scarcely 
become perceptible, before the British merchants caught and sound- 
ed the alarm ; and as soon as the colonists, in the progress of 
wealth and population, undertook to manufacture for their own 
consumption a few articles of the first necessity, such as hats and 
paper, a clamour was raised by the manufacturers in England, and 
the power of the British government was exerted to remove the 
cause of the complaint. The increase of emigration even became 
a cause of alarm, and measures were early taken to prevent it." 

In a short time these feelings received an entire developement. — 
Her mercantile jealousy, desirous to monopolize the trade of her 
colonies, led to the acts of navigation of 1651 and 1660, which 
obliged them to export all their productions to her own markets in 
her own vessels — acts which fully accomplished her desires — con- 
verting them into mere instruments for her aggrandizement, and 
which have in consequence been suffered to remain with their op- 
pressive weight on the colonics in her possession. 

The conduct of Great Britain to her North American posses- 
sions, in thus cramping their industry and checking their trade, 
it can scarcely be believed was quietly borne by colonists who 
had but lately fled from oppression at home. It invaded the 
whole course of their sentiments — struck a blow at the funda- 
mental principles of their new policy. Although from the cir- 
cumstances of their emigration, they felt themselves in some 
manner connected with the mother country, they never from the 
moment of their first settlement entertained any other idea, but 
that they were so far an independent state, that none but their own 
legislatures had a right to pass any laws aftecting themselves ; in- 
variably denying the power of the King and Parliament to interfere 
with their internal policy. They proceeded to treat with the natives, 
to erect towns and villages, and to cultivate the lands without the 
slightest reference to Great Britain. We have seen that no assist- 
ance of any kind was aflbrded to them by the mother country ; but 
it is not less true, that the colonial records do not show a single in- 
stance in which the founders of this new state would consent to 
apply to her for aid. They also considered themselves fully entitled 
to establish waht form of civil polity they pleased, and in a short 
time founded governments in all the colonies, on the principle of 
popular representation. The historians of the colonies, both Brit- 
ish and American, relate abundant facts in proof of this statement. 

On their first landing at Plymouth, the colonists proceeded to 



elect their own Governor, and who was for some years after annu- 
ally elected by the people, although the colony was established 
under a Royal Patent. Fourteen years after, a House of Deputies 
arose in Massachusetts, by the mere force of popular sentiment, 
without any authority from the government of Great Britain. In 
1635, when a rumor reached the colonies that it was contemplated 
in England to unite them under a general government, the Magis- 
trates and Clergy of Plymouth declared, that " if such a govern- 
ment was sent, the colony ought not to accept it, but defend her 
lawful possessions." 

In 1643, the four New England colonies, without applying to the 
government of Great Britain for approbation, united into a con- 
federacy for mutual offence and defence, called the United Colonies 
of New England ; which on its own authority, levied imposts, 
raised military forces, and made treaties with the Indians, and with 
the colonies belonging to other European nations. In 1648, this 
confederacy sent to Canada, a proposal that there should be per- 
petual peace between the colonies, even though the mother country 
was at war with France. 

In 1652, Massachusetts established of its own authority a mint, 
and issued silver coin, on one side of which was marked that year, 
as " the era of Independence."* On the reverse a tree, the usual 
symbol of Liberty. For thirty years afterAvards it continued to 
issue silver coin, and on every piece was impressed that date, and 
not the year in which it was struck. 

Having experienced great distress during the civil wars in England, 
from the general interruption of commerce ; on the ascendancy of 
the republican party, some of their friends in the mother country 
wrote to the Governor and Council of Massachusetts, advising them 
to apply to parliament for aid,"assuring them of success, &:.c. They 
took the subject into consideration, and returned an answer in 
these simple but expressive terms — " We decline the motion, on 
the ground that if we should put ourselves under the protection 
of parliament, we should be subject to all such laws as they 
should make ; or at least such as they should impose on us." 

In 1692, Massachusetts passed an express law, solemnly denying 
the competency of Parliament to impose any tax upon them, with- 
out the consent of their Legislature. 



* These are the words of the historians. 

B 



10 

The same spirit of independence existed in the Southern Colony 
established in Virginia. Fourteen years after it was founded, a 
House of Burgesses came into existence, though neither the King 
nor Council had given any powers or directions for it. During the 
troubles in England, Virginia, who favoured the royal authority, re- 
sisted the squadron sent over by Cromwell to subdue it, and sub- 
mitted at length only on the following terms : 1 . That the people 
of Virginia shall be subject to the Commonwealth of England, not 
as a conquered country, but as a country submitting by her own 
voluntary act, and shall enjoy the same privileges and freedom as 
the free people of England. 2. That they shall have a free trade as 
the people of England to all places and with all nations. 3. That 
they shall be free from all taxes, customs and impositions whatso- 
ever, and none shall be imposed on them without the consent of their 
General Assembly. 

By the terms of this capitulation, Virginia appears to have been 
fully awake to the effects of the navigation acts upon her trade. 
Massachusetts was early alive to the subject, and resisted the en- 
forcement of them, as long as resistance was effectual. The officer 
sent from England to collect the customs at Boston, was recalled 
upon his representation that he was in danger of being punished 
with death, by virtue of an ancient law, as a subverter of the con- 
stitution. When taxed with disobedience, the General Court did 
not hesitate to allege that the acts of navigation were an invasion of 
the rights and privileges of the subjects of his majesty in that 
colony — they being not represented in Parliament* . 

We thus perceive that the doctrine of Independence, which was 
formally announced to the world by the colonists on the 4th of July, 
1776, was not the sudden offspring of the peculiar events of that 
period, but had existed in their minds from the first plantation of 



* In the sketch I have given of the pertinacity with which the colonies re- 
sisted the dominion of Parliament over them, I have traced no new ground. — 
Writers of the first reputation, English and American, have dwelt upon it, and 
furnished abundant testimonies on the subject. Doctor Ramsay, whose colo- 
nial history is remarkable for its moderate and philosophical tone, asserts that 
there was always a large party in New-England who considered that they had 
a natural right to independence. It was in view of this fact, that Lord 
Mansfield, in 177G, expressed himself before Parliament in these words — 
" Tlie bad consequences of planting Northern Colonies were early predicted. 



11 

their settlements, and manifested in every mode short of a total re- 
jection of the dominion of Great Britain. They brought the germ 
of it with them when they left the shores of the mother country — 
nurtured 'and watered it with affectionate and devoted attachment, 
during their progress from infancy to maturity. Their feebleness 
long rendered resistance to the claims of the parent state hopeless ; 
but the nursling plant was to " grow with their growth and 
strengthen with their strength." The period would at length arrive 
when it would be suffered to expand in the open air — to strike deep 
roots in the earth — to afford, under its wide spreading branches, 
protection and shade, and to raise its towering top for the admira- 
tion of mankind. 

In invariably asserting their right to legislate for themselves, 
and resisting the authority of the British Parliament over them, 
the conduct of the colonists will stand for ever justified on the 
pages of history. 

The colonial system of modern times, by which the interest of 
the parent country is the paramount object, to which that of the 
colonies is secondary and subservient — a system that converts 
them into mere satellites to revolve round her Imperial Orb, to add 
increased splendour and magnificence to her political system — is 
not less an absurdity in the eye of reason than contrary to the uni- 
form previous practice of the world. 

When some of the inhabitants of a state, from the overgrowth 
of its population, or from causes of dissatisfaction, choose to mi- 
grate and settle on the unappropriated parts of the earth at their 
own charge, it is in the order of nature that they are to form dis- 
tinct and independent communities. They will naturally maintain 
intercourse with the ancient state ; and if, in the feebleness of their 
infancy, they require protection, and prefer to ask it of the mother 
country, they are in justice bound to afford an equivalent for this 



Devanant, in tlie last century, foresaw that whenever America found herself 
of sufficient strength to contend with the mother country, she would endea- 
vour to form herself into a separate and independent state. This has been 
the constant object of New-England almost from her earliest infancy." 

The facts I have stated I have taken immediately from " Holmes' American 
Annals," and Walsh's Appeal from the Jndgments of Great Britain," princi- 
pally from the last, where many other testimonies are collected on the subjecf- 
placed in an irresistible point of view. 



12 

assistance. But allegiance and protection are reciprocal ; where 
the latter is not given, the former cannot be rightfully asked. The 
colonies, when grown to maturity, and able to take care of them- 
selves, founded and fostered as they were by their own labour and 
industry, have a natural right to be their own rulers, and to disclaim 
dependence on any extraneous power whatever. On this principle? 
the colonies, in the early ages of the world went forth to people the 
earth. When an ancient state spread around it, its scions, each in 
its turn, became a distinct and separate community. In the ac- 
count given in holy scripture of the migration of the first families 
from the stock of Abraham, we no where find they paid tribute or 
acknowledged dependence on the patriarchal stock. If perpetual 
allegiance to the parent state is agreeable to the designs of Provi- 
dence, in what manner can we account for the division of the 
world, as at present, into so many various and independent 
communities ? The colonies of ancient Greece were formed on 
the same principles, and their early history bears a very striking 
resemblance to that of the colonies of North America. 

" They were undertaken (says a distinguished writer) by private 
individuals, with no authority from the government, and as they 
were generally directed towards distant and transmarine settlements, 
they retained but a slight connection with their original countries. 
The parent state, indeed, considered the colony as a child at all 
times entitled to great favour and assistance, and owing, in return, 
much gratitude and respect ; but, moreover, considered it as an 
emancipated child over whom no direct authority or jurisdiction was 
claimed. The colony settled its own form of government — elected 
its own magistrates — and made peace or war with its neighbours as 
an independent state, which had no occasion to wait for the appro- 
bation or consent of the parent city. The colonists indeed remem- 
bered the land of their fathers with filial aflTection and respect ; they 
retained a predilection for its customs and laws, as well as its reli- 
gion and language. In war, they generally followed the fortunes of 
the metropolis, as allies upon equal terms ; but as they were perfectly 
independent, as they received no protection from her, and often 
equalled her in resources, they always refused to come forward as aux- 
iliaries when unfair terms were proposed. Thus the Sicilian colonies 
refused to admit an Athenian army into their territories for the pur- 
pose of resting on an expedition ; and in the Persian war, the 
Republic of Syracuse, when entreated by the Lacedemonians to 
aid the common cause, refused, unless their Chief Magistrate was 



13 

intrusted with the command of the united forces of the Com- 
monwealth. During the dissentions between the different states 
of Greece, Corinth attempted to exact from one of her own colo- 
nies the usual mark of filial attachment — its aid to her cause. — 
The colonists resisted. She endeavoured to obtain it by force. 
They appealed 4^ Athens, and formed instead, an alliance with that 
Republic." 

The modern doctrine of the implicit allegiance of a colony to 
the mother country is the creature of mere arbitrary assumption. — 
On the discovery of America, the ecclesiastical power of Rome 
first asserted a claim to the whole continent, as the property of the 
Church, of which it was the head. Though populated by extensive 
nations, their right to their native soil was deemed a nullity ; and, 
by a singular course of reasoning, the head of the Christian Church 
construed his office to civilize and convert the heathen, as convey- 
ing the right to violate their property. This pretension was too 
monopolizing to be long regarded by the powers of Europe, who 
felt a strong desire to share in the tempting spoils of the new world, 
and sought for some ground on which they also might found a claim 
to portions of its territory. A tacit understanding soon arose 
among them that each nation should possess an exclusive right to 
that part which had been first visited by its ships, on which prin- 
ciple their adverse claims were afterwards settled. A principle, 
however, not less absurd than the doctrine assumed by the authori- 
ties of Rome. 

As Providence designed the earth for the use of all mankind, 
the actual appropriation and occupation of hitherto vacant parts, 
in fulfilling its designs, alone gives a title to property in the soil. — 
All nations possess an equal right to spread their superabundant 
population over the unsettled parts of the earth, and to acquire a 
first claim to it by actual possession. If the mere fact of first dis- 
covery is sufficient to establish a title to a country, an adventurous 
commercial nation might have been enabled to assert a claim to 
the whole of the new hemisphere, without setting foot upon it, to 
the exclusion of all other powers. But the American continent was 
not an «n-inhabited country. It was peopled by various nations 
who may have been there from the earliest ages. They were in 
general in the first stages of society, but had made some advances 
in improvement ; they cultivated some of their native productions, 
and made their own fabrics for clothing and domestic uses. They 
were barbarous in their manners ; but equally so were the ancient 



14 

Gauls, Celts, Saxons, and Britons on tlie other continent, from 
whom most of the present nations of Enrope derive as well their 
origin, as their title to the countries they possess. In some parts 
of America, as in Mexico and Peru, they were a civilized people. 
They lived in houses of stone ; had edifices of magnificent struc- 
ture, roads, canals, and bridges of ingenious workmanship ; and 
possessed costly articles made from the precious metals with which 
their country abounded. Did the mere discovery of these nations 
give to any European power a right to divest them of their terri- 
torial possessions ? Visionary, however, as the claim was, there 
was none, at first, to question it ; for all the states of Europe were 
equally interested in maintaining it. When, in after times, the rise 
and progress of the European colonies began to form a topic of 
history, the writers of Spain and Portugal, sensible of the futility 
of the ground these states assumed, adopted a new basis on which 
to build their claim to their possessions in the New World. The 
first expeditions to South America and Mexico, planned by indi- 
viduals, under grants from the Spanish crown, were all of a mili- 
tary nature ; and the territory entered upon was wrested from its 
possessors by force of arms. The right to the country by con- 
quest — admitted by the previous custom of the world as a valid 
ground of territorial acquisition — was then uniformly laid down as 
the basis on which the claim of the sovereigns of Spain and Por- 
tugal to their American possessions, rested. 

In the settlement of North America, the crown of Great Britian 
obtained a right to the soil neither by conquest, nor by purchase 
from the natives. She invariably rested her claim solely on the fact 
of her being the first discoverer. In no instance, indeed, even took 
formal possession of it by the erection of forts, or other modes of 
actual occupation. The rightful owners in North America, at the 
commencement, were Carver, and his little band, who settled on 
the rock of Plymouth ; Smith, and his associates, on James' River ; 
WiUiam Penn, and his followers, on the Delaware ; and those other 
individuals in other places, who established, at their own expense, 
settlements on the Continent, after having purchased of the natives 
the soil on which they located. Slender, however, as was the claim 
of Great Britain to North America, she soon began to exercise 
ownership over it by dividing it into two provinces, and issuing 
patents to individuals and companies for portions of it. The co- 
lonization under these patents gave her the colour of sovereignty 
over the settlements, but the colonists appear to have considered it 



16 

only as nominal, exhibiting, as we have seen, in all their actions, 
that they felt virtually independent. 

To return to a history of the colonies : the last encroachment on 
their rights and liberties to which we have referred, was the assump- 
tion of a right by Parliament to control their trade, by the enact- 
ment of the navigation laws of 1 63 1 and 1 660. This monopolizing 
step, which secured to Great Britain the benefit of all the industry 
of her colonies, appeared to be the utmost limit to wliich she 
would venture to extend her power ; and in this state of commer- 
cial subjection their relations continued for a long time without any 
change. 

The colonies were destined, however, in course of time to wit- 
ness an attempt at a still further exercise of dominion over them— 
an attempt that finally burst the ties that bound them to the parent 
state. Though the resources of their country had been made sub- 
servient to it ; though they had cheerfully contributed aid to carry 
on the foreign wars in which they were involved by it—no contri- 
bution in the form of a direct tax had yet been drawn from them by 
the mother country, without the consent of their legislatures.— 
Great Britain having closed the war of '63 with honour and glory 
—a youthful monarch risen to the throne, inspiring the brightest 
hopes of a triumphant reign ; in the fullness of her prosperity ; in 
the intoxication of her pride— formed the rash project of raising a 
revenue from the colonies, by intrenching on a principle which 
they regarded as the life blood of their liberties. A proposal hav- 
ing been made by the ministry to Parliament in 1765, to raise an 
additional military force, which was ill received', as imposing a griev- 
ous burden on the people at the close of an expensive though glo- 
rious war ; the ministry silenced the murmers of opposition, by 
intimating the plan of raising the necessary supplies by a tax on 
the colonies. In pursuance of which, a bill was brought in and 
passed, laying a tax on stamps used in the foreign settlements of 
Great Britain. 

On the arrival of intelhgence of this act in America, the colo- 
nists were thrown into a state of intense excitement. The idea of 
being subjected to the legislation of Parliament, where they were 
not represented, they had resisted from the infancy of their settle- 
ment — and would in no shape, and under no circumstances, toler- 
ate for a moment. It was the hideous form of Tyranny itself stalk- 
ing across the Atlantic to destroy, with its pestilential breath, all 
that they held dear and sacred. They were resolved to strangle 



16 

the monster, the moment it touched their shores. The indignation 
roused by this act would probably at that time have produced the 
Revolution, had the ministry attempted to force it upon the peo- 
ple. They judged it prudent to repeal it ; but repealed it only in 
form. Bent on maintaining the supremacy of Parliament, what- 
ever might be the result, they connected with the repeal a declara- 
tory act, asserting its right to bind the colonies in all cases what- 
soever — a measure that served only to keep the minda of the people 
of America fully awake to the further exercise of the right. Va- 
rious measures were afterwards adopted to subdue their independ- 
ent spirit. It was at the commencement of this scheme of Parlia' 
ment, to bind the colonies like captives to the triumphal car of the 
mother country, by controlling them by a foreign legislature with- 
out their consent, that the friends of civil liberty in England, struck 
with the gross injustice of the measure, opposed the head-long 
career of the ministry with a display of eloquence, not excelled in 
the most classic periods of Greece and Rome. But the ministry 
were driven on by a blind infatuation. No argument could con- 
vince — no eloquence could persuade them. A few years after, 
they again attempted to carry their plans into execution in the colo- 
nies. They indulged the vain idea, that by disguising the tax, un- 
der the form of a commercial duty, it would meet with less resist- 
ance, and in 1775 passed the memorable act imposing a duty on 
tea imported into the colonies. The revolution may be said to have 
commenced, when information of this act reached America. The 
minds of the people that had been irritated and smarting under the 
declaratory act, would admit of no parley or accommodation re- 
specting the measure now announced. The officers of the cus- 
toms sent over to receive the duty were seized — the first vessel that 
brought tea into their ports boarded, and its cargo thrown into 
the sea. Associations were formed throughout the country 
not to use hereatier the contaminated article. A desperate con- 
flict was now preparing between the colonies and the mother 
country. To subdue their spirit, Great Britain resorted to the em- 
ployment of military force. The period had now arrived when the 
colonists were obliged to decide between implicit submission to the 
will of Great Britain, or determined resistance to her arms. The 
serious alternative presented to them they fully weighed. They 
knew that her extensive fleets and armies, victorious in every 
quarter of the globe, might be employed for their subjugation. But 
the feeling that animated the hearts of the people of America re- 



It 

sponded, that it was better to die freemen, than to live slaves. 
" Blandishments," said a distinguished patriot, " will not fascinate 
us, nor will threats of a halter intimidate us ; for under God we are 
determined that whensoever, wheresoever, or howsoever, we shall 
be called to make our exit from the world,' we will die Freemen." 
The contest in which they were to be engaged, they knew was 
unequal. Their raw undisciplined troops taken from the plough, 
with inexperienced officers and no military establishments, were to 
array themselves against the veteran soldiers of Europe, who to a 
knowledge of the science and discipline of war and a long course 
of service, had arrived, flushed with the laurels they had acquired 
in the war lately closed between England and France ; but their 
love of liberty, and indignation against their oppressors, supplied 
the want of tactics. They felt that though their first effort might 
be unsuccessful ; from their numbers, they might return and return 
to the encounter, till their invaders were driven from their soil. 
The battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill astonished Great Britain. 
They astonished the world. In America, they cheered the spirit 
of the titnid, confirmed the valour of the ardent. An universal 
sound of " resistance — resistance," vibrated from New-Hampshire 
to Georgia. A concert of action was agreed upon, and a general 
Congress of deputies from the colonies assembled at Philadelphia. 
A determined resolution to oppose, at every hazard, the assump- 
tion of Great Britain, was the leading sentiment of the patriots of 
the day. 

This assemblage of citizens, in whose hands the destinies of the 
colonies were placed, were men who to an ardent patriotism united 
exalted talents, enlightened minds, and a high degree of wisdom and 
prudence. They were not restless, factious and disorganizing spirits, 
panting for a revolution " to ride on the whirlwind and direct the 
storm ;" they were pure and virtuous patriots, discarding all selfish 
ends, intent only on the good of their country, and marching to 
their object with calm and deliberate reflection. They considered 
that they had met on an occasion of great national calamity. Dear 
as were the rights of their country, and resolved as they were to 
maintain them, they were willing still to use every effort to effect 
a reconciliation with the mother country, on terms honourable to 
their own. They left the door of peace open until the hope of it 
was entirely extinguished, by the fixed determination of the ministry 
of Great Britain, not to listen to accommodation on any condition 
short of an absolute recognition of the supremacy of Parliament. 

c 



18 

Again and again, after the drama was opened, did Congress, feeling 
still the force of those ancient ties with the mother country, which 
had entwined themselves in all the pursuits of life, and the inter- 
course of society, before the final rupture, appeal to Great Britain. 
They addressed the Parliament sometimes in a tone of remon- 
strance ; sometimes in a style of earnest solicitation. They address- 
ed the people of England, entreating them to use their intercessions 
to arrest the mad career of the government. They finally addressed 
a mild and respectful petition to the King himself, who they indulg- 
ed the hope was above the influence of those blind passions which 
were hurrying on a ministry and Parliament to the loss of the 
brightest jewel in his crown. The petition was presented on the 
first September, 1775, by two gentlemen, selected for the purpose 
from their elevated standing in this country. Three days after they 
were informed in these laconic terms, that " no answer would be 
given to the petition." This cold and haughty rejection of the 
appeal of Congress to the head of the empire, whom they had ad- 
dressed in the last resort, contributed more fully to fan the flame of 
discontent throughout the colonies ; to unite them in the firm resolu- 
tion to maintain their liberties at every hazard, and placed before 
them no other resource than to renounce for ever all political con- 
nection with Great Britain ; to consider themselves no longer as 
colonies struggling against a mother country, but as independent 
States, defending their liberties against a foreign aggressor. Ac- 
cordingly, on the 4th of July 1776, the blow was struck, and the 
colonies were declared Independant States, absolved from all alle- 
giance to the British]Crown. Momentous Declaration ! The har- 
binger to these states of a stream of overflowing prosperity — the 
day-spring of the fairest prospects which it has been the destiny of 
any nation to witness. The independence declared, was however 
yet to be maintained. With equal resolution, with unremitting 
energy, while the sky occasionally lowered with fearful omens over 
their heads, the patriot soldiers of America met the armies of 
England again and again, and after a seven years' conflict, 
triumphed — most gloriously triumphed ; — a triumph not of arms 
alone, but of principle ; the victory of reason and justice, over the 
unbending arrogance of power. The war at an end, a new era was 
about to commence. The sun of independence that rose above 
the horizon, mid dark revolving clouds, now shoots its radiant beams 
above them, bright and piercing, along the extended plains of Ame- 
rica ; illuminates its vallies and gilds its mountain tops ; its happy 



19 

citizens walk forth to enjoy the cheerful and renovated aspect of 
their country, to breathe the fresh air of liberty, and scent its fra- 
grance in every passing breeze. 

Scarce had the sword been sheathed, tlian the new empire arisen 
in the western world rolled on with an astonishing impetus, in the 
career of glory and aggrandizement. 

Fellow-citizens, let us take a passing glance at the great changes 
effected in this country, since the close of its struggles for indepen- 
dence. Its population has increased in a ratio unparalleled in the 
history of the world. Vast portions of the country, then an unbro- 
ken wilderness, have been cleared and cultivated — and filled with 
flourishing towns and villages. The tide of emigration, like an 
overpowering flood, breaking down the mounds which restrained it, 
has rushed foith, westward, northward, and southward. Not a 
portion of the country that has not felt the stirring spirit of enterprise 
and improvement brought into' action ; and wherever the wilder- 
ness has been reclaimed, it has not remained for a length of time 
as in other countries, affording only means to gratify the simple 
wants of early society — but it has been immediately converted as 
if by a magical transformation, into the possession of the comforts 
and even the luxuries of a high state of civilization : while roads and 
canals, in magnitude and importance, equalling the most expensiv- 
Morks of the kind in Europe, have connected the whole by ties of 
the closest intimacy. 

Science has shed its benign radiance over the country. Elemen- 
tary education is universal. Seminaries for the higher branches 
have arisen around the land, even in the most recently settled re- 
gions. Its literary character is respected in Europe, and its procvuc- 
tions of genius are sought for and read. In the arts, some of thib 
most useful mechanical contrivances emanate from the inventive 
spirit of your countrymen. By successfully applying steam to navi- 
gation, this infant country has afforded a greater benefit to mankind 
than any one of the most improved nations of Europe, in the same 
period : a benefit the ultimate consequences of which, when en- 
joyed by all parts of the globe, it is difficult fully to estimate. 

The ocean has been equally a scene on which the energy and 
talent of your countrymen have been elicited. In thirty years after 
these states had closed their struggle with Great Britain, during 
which they possessed not even the rudiments of a navy to defend 
their shores, we find them summoning their former antagonist to 
battle on her favored element, and triumphing in the contest. 



20 

Fellow-citizens, when you look abroad at the extent of your pros- 
perity, you have reason to rentier your devout homage to a kind 
Providence, for the choice gifts he has poured upon you. You are 
in possession of a country extending through the most temperate 
climate|>, but approaching so far to a southern and nothern latitude 
as to afford you the advantages of both : and you have been permit- 
ted for forty years, with scarce an interruption, to give full scope 
to your enterprise and industry, in whatever pursuit your inclination 
or genius might lead you — and to avail yourselves fully of the abun- 
dant and varied resources of your country. Look at other portions 
of the world : cast your eyes on the continent of Asia — see ^nil- 
lions of your fellow creatures there — a large portion of the whole 
population — dependent on the scanty supplies which an ill cultiva- 
ted country affords for an overgrown population ; their minds de- 
based by the most humiliating superstition and idolatry. View be- 
nighted Africa, overrun by rude and" ignorant tribes of savages, 
engaged in constant wars of mutual destruction — and selling each 
other to men of the other hemisphere. Turn your eyes next to 
Europe — civilized Europe. See this favored portion of the old 
world, with all its advancement in refinement and knowledge, al- 
most perpetually scourged by the'calamities of war. Peace is there 
only a breathing time, to sharpen anew the weapons of destruction. 
For twenty years it was convulsed to the centre, by internal distur- 
bances : a million of lives were destroyed by the sword. Famine, 
fire? and desolation walked in the train of war. Cities wrapt in 
flames, and universal distress from the interruption of commerce, 
were visible throughout that continent. During that whole period, 
except the short interval of the years 1812 and '13, when you were 
called to a temporary contention with Great Britain, you have 
known war only by its echoes across the Atlantic, or by the slight 
agitation which the heaving of the troubled waters in the old world 
has made along your shores. 

In what manner has your independence as a nation, produced 
this happy state of things ? Certainly two circumstances connec- 
ted with it were efficient agents. Your trade confined to the ports 
of the mother country, now became a trade with the world. Your 
commercial spirit visible in your colonial state, but restrained 
within prescribed limits by her jealous scrutiny, had now an unlimi- 
ted range. Every market was open to you. Your enterprising 
seamen frequently circumnavigated the globe in their distant voya- 
ges. This unbounded commerce gave a stimulus to agriculture. 



21 

and general industry. The territory of the old states was not suffi- 
cient to supply its demands ; you entered your forests and extended 
the dominion of man over the wilderness. 

The separation which your independence accomplished for you 
from the theatre of European politics, was another favorable circum- 
stance arising from it. You were no longer drawn to follow a 
mother country in all her foreign wars, in which you had no con- 
cern, to be merely the prey of European powers, contending who 
should be your masters, and obliging you to pay for the expense of 
their struggles. Separated by a wide ocean from Europe, you be- 
came after the independence as little connected from necessity 
with it, as with the continent of Asia ; and it became your cardi- 
nal policy not to enter voluntarily into its wars, but to avoid all en- 
tangling alliances with any of its contending powers. With this 
principle for his polar star, your immortal Washington, who had 
conducted your political bark safely through the perils of the revo- 
lution, at the helm of state guided it in equal security through the 
tempestuous billows which agitated Europe at the commencement 
of your existence as a nation. 

These two great advantages, an unrestrained commerce and a 
separation from the conflicts of Europe, have been the efficient 
agents of your prosperous growth since the revolution. But effi- 
cient not of themselves : made so by the spirit of freedom, that 
spirit which led your ancestors to leave their native country to found 
a new empire over the Atlantic, and which repressed but not sub- 
dued during your colonial state, resumed at the revolution its full 
and vigorous exercise. It is this spirit, calling into action on the 
extended sphere, then opening on the view all the latent talent of 
your country, by securing to each individual the entire benefit of the 
powers intellectual, moral, or physical, with which nature has en- 
dowed him, that has created such an universal fermentation — such 
an emulous activity in all the pursuits of life, bursting forth like a 
living spring of fresh and wholesome water, to clothe with new and 
vivid verdure the fields over which it spreads. 

That " government derives all its just powers from the consent of 
the governed," is a principle which your ancestors invariably cher- 
rished as the corner-stone of their hberties ; in accordance with 
which, they very early established in the colonies, legislatures 
elected by the people. 

It was the invasion of this cardinal principle that produced the 
revolution. It was not the amount of supplies required from them 



22 

by Great Britain — they had heretofore spent heavy sums in her wars 
to support her glory and reputation — but it was the determination, 
avowed and persevered in, to bind them without their consent ; to 
impose laws on them by a parliament in which they were not re- 
presented, that roused that spirit which could neither be broken nor 
hushed to repose ! Admit the principle : Hold them subject to a 
legislature in which they had no voice — in which laws the most op- 
pressive to them might be passed without their knowledge, was in 
effect, in the words of the declaration, " reducing them under abso- 
lute despotism," establishing a government over them in which the 
will of the governing power was the sole motive for the law. In- 
dependence released tlie colonies from this odious oppression ; but 
it would still have afforded little consolation to the people of Ame- 
rica, if the principle of popular representation had not been fully re- 
cognised in the revolution, as applicable also to their internal govern- 
ment. Had it resulted merely in the exchange of the dominion of 
the king of England for an independent government in which the 
people had no share — had a military leader usurped authority and 
trampled on your rights, another revolution would not long after 
have followed your separation fiom Great Britain. The principles 
of civil liberty were too thoroughly seated in the minds of the 
people, to be forgotten in their future political arrangements. The 
Declaration of Independence laid the basis of the superstructure, in 
the sentiments it announced ; — " We hold these truths," says this 
sacred instrument, " to be self-evident, that all men are created 
equal ; that they arc endowed by their Creator with certain inalien- 
able rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness." Equal, not in endowments — but equal in their right 
to have the full benefit of their endowments, however differing in 
kind or degree : — equally entitled to the perfect enjoyment of their 
life, their liberty, and that share of happiness which the faculties 
they possess enable them to obtain. On these broad truths, clear 
and pure as the liglrt of day, the system of government subsequent- 
ly established over this country, recognised as a fundamental prin- 
ciple, the good of the people as its object — the will of the people as 
its origin. A fabric of civil liberty was erected, in which the voice 
of the people is more distinctly acknowledged, than in any form of 
government hitherto seen on the face of the globe. The improve- 
ments made in modern times from the progress of knowledge and 
refinement, in limiting the sway of arbitrary governments by intro- 
ducing the people to a share of political power, have given but the 



23 

mere shadow of liberty compared with the spectacle this couii<jy 
exhibits. In the governments of Europe, the voice of the peoplo 
in elections is almost entirely counteracted by the influence of the 
crown, or a powerful aristocracy. The elective franchise is there 
a privilege — requiring various qualifications ; is confined within 
narrow limits, and even within those limits its rightful exercise is 
impeded by the prevalence of corruption. Even in Great Britain, 
in whose constitution is embodied more of this principle than in that 
of any other European nation, a large portion of the members of 
parliament, nominally elected by the people, are virtually appointed 
by the ministry. A few decayed villages, where scarce an inhabit- 
ant is seen, send more members than all the great commercial 
towns united. The property-qualification excludes large classes : 
the religious tests a still greater number. 

Look next on the boasted states of ancient Rome and Greece. 
These were Republics ; but how faintly did they understand those 
expanded principles of civil liberty unfolded in the declaration of 
your independence. 

In Rome, the inhabitants were divided into two great classes, 
the Patrician and Plebeian, the former of whom, composed of the 
most opulent, were alone entitled to the high oftices of the state. 
The whole history of that country exhibits a continued struggle on 
the part of the people at large, to share with the Patricians the 
powers of government. 

Greece, with all the forms of Freedom, was but an ingeni- 
ously contrived aristocracy, to place the many under subjection to 
the few. Those who held the rank of citizens, and were entitled to 
vote, were but a small minority of the commnuity. The mass of 
the people, comprehending all those who attend to agriculture and 
performed the rest of the labour of the country, were in a state of do- 
mestic servitude, and wholly excluded from any share in the govern- 
ment. 

How different the character of Freedom here ! It is a vital prin- 
ciple passing through all the veins and arteries of the body pohtic, 
to their minutest ramifications, infusing that glow of health, that 
animated, blooming aspect which our country exhibits. The sov- 
ereignty resides here absolute in the people, and in all the people ; 
pervades and vivifies the entire community. It is literally a self- 
government. Such a government was deemed in former times the 
dream of fanciful theorists ; or at least as practicable only in a very 
small community, with few objects at home for legislation, and en- 



24 

gaged in no foreign relations. Extended further, it was conceived 
it would necessarily fall to pieces, from the turbulence of lawless 
passions and the artifices of designing men ; that intestine broils 
would incessantly agitate the state till the uproar of confusion 
wouJd be stilled by the mandate of a successful demagogue, rising 
to power on the ruins of freedom. 

How wonderfully are the speculations of men in their closets fal- 
sified ! Here is seen a Republic of twelve millions of inhabitants, 
spreading over a territory of great extent, actuated by a spirit of 
active, restless enterprise, and engaged in intercourse with all parts 
of the earth ; and yet in no part of the world exists a country 
where more general tranquillity and order prevail. When has oc- 
curred any tumultuous assemblage of its people ? — When have 
riots arisen, and the houses of eminent citizens been attacked for 
their political principles ? — When have mechanics conspired, in a 
disorderly manner, against their employers for an increase of wages? 
When has it become necessary to call out a military force to sup- 
press any disturbance ? — When have any of our public rulers been 
assassinated on entering the halls of legislation ? 

Tljese things have been witnessed in other countries, the most 
modern, even in time of peace. 

Fellow-citizens, the fabric of civil liberty you have raised is the 
admiration of the world. No event, since the discovery of the 
American Continent, has produced more extensive eflccts than the 
foundation of this Republic. The light of liberty has beamed 
across the Atlantic. The successful example you exhibit of a free 
government, has taught men in every country to reflect more on 
the rights of the people ; and the principle of popular representa- 
tion is every where gaining ground. The spark you struck out at 
the revolution, has kindled a flame over this western hemisphere. 
Your brethren in South America, long oppressed by the rigorous 
system of their mother country, and by their own superstition, igno- 
rance, and prejudice, have been taught by your example to throw 
off their shackles ; and nearly on the whole of that continent, re- 
publican governments have been established after the model of 
yours, not only embodying the spirit, but even copying the forms 
of your constitutions. 

Long may the happy government you possess endure. May 
generation after generation enjoy its blessings, and see its benign 
influence extend farther among mankind. But amid the cheering 
prospect before us, desponding minds arc found who view the long 



25 

endurance of this Republic with but a trembling hope. The struc- 
ture appears too magnificent to last. The very love and admira- 
tion it excites, create a fear that it may not be permanent. At one 
moment apprehensions exist that the general government, accu- 
mulating power, will gradually absorb the states in one consolidated 
government. At another period, the chain that binds the states 
appears too slender to withstand the shock of collisions, which it is 
feared will arise from their mutual jealousy of each other's ascen- 
dency. It is not my intention to examine what foundation there 
exists for these apprehensions. The occasion will not allow ; but 
suffer me to advert for a moment, to the means of preventing these 
evils — of perpetuating the liberties of your country. These means 
fellow-citizens, lie in your own hands — in the faithful exercise of 
the elective franchise. You are the actual rulers of the country. 
The officers of government are but delegates of your power, chosen 
by your voice. Directly or indirectly, all authority flows from you ; 
from the chief Magistrate of the Union, to the lowest officer in a 
state. On you, therefore, rests the responsibility of having the 
stations in your government filled by real friends to their country, 
and its free institutions, not in word, but in very deed ; men of 
upright and honorable views, scorning to sacrifice the interests of 
their country to their sinister ends. If such men are chosen by you 
to seats in the national or state legislatures, you need fear no en- 
croachments from the former — no disunion among the latter. 
You may sometimes be deceived by appeai'ances ; but the frequen- 
cy of elections enables you to redress the evil, if the remedy is not 
too long delayed. When the streams of authority that flow from 
your hands become corrupt, they may be purified by new draughts 
fi-om the fountain of power. The elective franchise is the palladium 
placed in your hands to preserve the liberties of your country. Duly 
estimate, then, the importance of the trust. Let it be considered 
a sacred charge, and exercised with deliberate, serious reflection. 
Examine thoroughly the fitness, in rectitude of purpose as well as 
inteUigence and experience of candidates, presented for your choice, 
and confide your powers to none but those who are in all these 
respects worthy of your confidence — and the Republic iar safe ! 
Trust not too much to loud and vehement professions of extreme 
regard for you. Let not the poison of flattery seduce you from 
your duty. Power, in whatever form, is destined to be the object 
of adulation. Where sovereignty resides in one individual, the mo- 
narch is surrounded by crowds of sycophants, endeavoring to en- 



2(5 

twine themselves, by all the arts of insidious cunning, in his affec- 
tions — to riot in the sunshine of his favor. In like manner, when 
political authority emanates from the people, they are liable to be- 
come objects of the same arts. If in the former case, monarchs 
have been told that their government is founded on divine right, 
not on the will of, or responsible to their subjects, the echo of this 
phrase is heard, when the people are told that they are infallible ; 
that their voice is the voice of God. Listen not to the songs of 
these charmers. You are but men, though you may be worshiped 
as deities by those, who, gratified in their wishes, would seize the 
first moment to trample on your liberties. The real danger of our 
government consists in this, that constituted as you are, the source 
of power, you are, from the imperfection of human nature, liable to 
be blinded by designing politicians, enemies to their country. Think, 
fellow-citizens, when you proceed to deposit your ballots, of the la- 
bor and pains your ancestors have taken to establish the free insti- 
tutions of your country, through all the stages of their colonial 
growth, and through all the struggles of the revolution. Reflect 
on the example your country has set to mankind, and that the eyes 
of the world are upon you. Here is now tried the greatest politi- 
cal experiment man has ever witnessed. The cause of civil liberty 
is in your hands. You are to decide the all-important question 
whether man is capable of self-government. Guard then with de- 
voted, with scrupulous attention, the honest and faithful exercise of 
the elective franchise. 

If in your day the Republic expires, history will designate you as 
men who had lost in the excess of their prosperity, that elevation of 
sentiment, that firmness of purpose, that pure love of freedom which 
so conspicuously shone in the conduct of your fathers. It will not 
point out for the peculiar attention of posterity, that a great com- 
mercial nation once arose in a short period, on the western shores 
of the Atlantic, emulating in all the improvements of civihzed life, 
the nations of the old world ; it will not state that you extended 
your empire over a vast territory ; it will not select, as topics to 
dwell upon, your advances in the arts, your inventions, or your 
public works : but it will relate, in a tone of deep lamentation, that 
here the fabric of Freedom was founded by the undaunted spirit of 
a band of freemen, who fled from the oppressions of the old world, 
on the broad basis of the sovereignty of the people ; that it was ce- 
mented by the blood of patriots animated by the same spirit, through 
a long and arduous conflict ; that it rose amid the taunts and incre- 



27 

dulity of the abettors of ancient systems to a height of magnificence 
visible far and wide' — becoming a beacon for the hopes of the op- 
pressed in every region, and raising man in his own moral estima- 
tion, by proving him neither too wicked nor too weak to govern 
himself; but that in the midst of the gaze of an admiring world, 
the edifice suddenly crumbled to pieces from the degeneracy of the 
offspring of its founders ; and like a splendid illusion — like the 
bright, but 'baseless fabric of a vision' — it melted into empty air, 
and left not a trace behind. 



M^--^. 



•^ 



